The new Standards-Based Grading is like a mile marker on a road trip.
By now, the first report cards have come home. You might have had a lot of questions when you saw your child’s, the first one being “Where did all the letters go?” If that was the case, chances are that your child is now being graded under a system called standards-based. Here are some answers to the questions you might have been too embarrassed to ask the teacher.
How does it work?
What is the ultimate goal of education? To progress a student through a curriculum, preparing them for the next year as well as life after they’ve finished school. Proponents of standards-based grading couldn’t see how the old letter-based system reflected that fact.
Instead of signifying the success (or lack of) a student had on a few tests and in completing their homework, standards-based shows on a scale (usually numbered from 1 to 4) where your child falls compared to where they should be at this point in the school year.
For example, say a “4” is the complete mastery of all of this year’s skills. At this point, roughly halfway through the school year, your child should be at a “2”. If they are at 0 or 1, they’re behind. If they are at 3 or 4, they are ahead. Simple.
How does the teacher get that number?
Another facet of standards-based is a desire not to move a student on until they’ve mastered whatever skill is currently being taught. Not all teachers work in this fashion because of pacing and differentiation challenges, but that’s the goal. If your child is with a teacher who is working like that, the number is simply a representation of where they are in the curriculum. A mile marker on a road trip, if you will.
If the teacher can’t work under the “everybody goes together” system, the number could be an averaging of numbers that signify progress on smaller assessments given throughout the term. Like on the bigger scale, if the student shows complete mastery of a test, they would get a 4 and so on.
What are the implications?
On a day-to-day basis, not much. Teachers still teach lessons. Students still need to learn skills in order to be considered successful. One thing that parents might notice is a scaling back of homework. It’s no longer needed to pad grades, so if it’s given it’s because the class needed extra practice on the skill in order to make progress. It might not even be “graded”.
In the bigger picture, it’s up to schools and districts to figure out how the system equates to measures like GPAs. Standards-based might only be adopted by a few teachers at a school, meaning once a student moves on, they might find themselves under the old system again.
Although it makes a lot of sense on the ground level once everyone gets acquainted with it, standards-based grading might prove to be another educational fad that will fall out of favor just as quickly as it came in. Maybe the logistical challenges are too great. But the bottom line is that kids need to work just as hard.